Important: This page is general information, not medical advice. It does not recommend or prescribe any treatment. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.
About Caregivers
A caregiver gives care to someone who needs help taking care of themselves. The person who needs help may be a child, an adult, or an older adult. They may need help because of an injury or disability. Or they may have a chronic illness such as Alzheimer's disease or cancer.
Some caregivers are informal caregivers. They are usually family members or friends. Other caregivers are paid professionals. Caregivers may give care at home or in a hospital or other health care setting. Sometimes they are caregiving from a distance. The types of tasks that caregivers do may include:
- Helping with daily tasks like bathing, eating, or taking medicine
- Doing housework and cooking
- Running errands such as shopping for food and clothes
- Driving the person to appointments
- Providing company and emotional support
- Arranging activities and medical care
- Making health and financial decisions
Caregiving can be rewarding. It may help to strengthen connections to a loved one. You may feel fulfillment from helping someone else. But caregiving may also be stressful and sometimes even overwhelming. You may be "on call" for 24 hours a day. You may also be working outside the home and taking care of children. So you need to make sure that you are not ignoring your own needs. You have to take care of your own physical and mental health as well. Because when you feel better, you can take better care of your loved one. It will also be easier to focus on the rewards of caregiving.
Dept. of Health and Human Services Office on Women's Health
It sits within Social/Family Issues and Health System.
The lead U.S. institute for this subject is the National Institute on Aging.
When to speak to someone. Reading about a topic cannot tell you whether it applies to you. Speak to a doctor or pharmacist if symptoms are severe, sudden, getting worse, or simply not going away — and seek emergency care immediately for chest pain, breathing difficulty, sudden weakness or confusion, or a serious allergic reaction.
Research on Caregivers
2,750 studies areregistered for this condition on ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's public registry. A selection is below — the links go straight to the registry entry, not to a summary of ours.
What a registered study does and does not mean. Registration means a study exists and has been declared publicly. It says nothing about whether the treatment being tested works, is safe, or is available to you. Many studies find no benefit — that is what research is for. Never seek out an experimental treatment on the strength of a registry entry alone.
Research currently under way
- Artificially Intelligent Robotic ControlUniversity of Miami
- Effective Implementation Control TrialUniversiti Putra Malaysia
- The Comparative Effectiveness Evaluation of the Impact of Digital EducationDuke University
- Merton Music Therapy Community-based Dementia ProjectAnglia Ruskin University
- Online FBT-DBT Caregiver Intervention for Caregivers of Individuals With Anorexia NervosaShanghai Mental Health Center
- New Assessment System in Measuring Symptom Distress in Cancer PatientsM.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Research already completed
- Deprescribing in Patients Living With Dementia With Caregiver and Provider NudgesBrigham and Women's Hospital
- AI Chatbot for HPV Vaccine Literacy Among Caregivers in JapanThe University of Hong Kong
- Technology and Family Thriving StudyUniversity of California, Santa Barbara
- Juntos: A Pilot Test of a Dating Violence Intervention for Latine FamiliesUniversity of Pittsburgh
- CommunityRx-HungerUniversity of Chicago
Study data from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-30. Registry entries are supplied by study sponsors and investigators; ClinicalTrials.gov does not verify their scientific validity. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH.
Where to read more
Rather than paraphrase, we point you to the primary sources. Every link below is to a government health agency, a national institute or a recognised medical body — grouped by what you are trying to find out.
Start Here
- Hands-On Skills for CaregiversFamily Caregiver Alliance
- Taking Care of Yourself When You're a Cancer CaregiverAmerican Cancer Society
Related Issues
- Adult Day CareAdministration for Community Living
- Caregiver SupportAmerican Heart Association
- Caregiving and Sibling Relationships: Challenges and OpportunitiesFamily Caregiver Alliance
- Caregiving at Home: A Guide to Community ResourcesFamily Caregiver Alliance
- Caring for Siblings of Kids with DisabilitiesNemours Foundation
- Guidelines for Better Communication with Brain Impaired AdultsFamily Caregiver Alliance
- Long-Distance CaregivingNational Institute on Aging
- VA Caregiver Support ProgramVeterans Health Administration
- What is Long-Distance Caregiving?National Institute on Aging
Statistics and Research
- Caregiver Statistics: DemographicsFamily Caregiver Alliance
Clinical Trials
- ClinicalTrials.gov: CaregiversNational Institutes of Health
Medical subject headings
Clinicians and researchers index this subject under Caregivers. These are the terms to use when searching medical literature.
This page is built from the MedlinePlus health topic record for Caregivers, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health. Information is from MedlinePlus.gov. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH. Retrieved 30 July 2026.